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Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book: A Complete Resource from the Desktop to the Enterprise

by John Savill

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Amazon.comThe Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book provides hundreds of FAQ-style questions and answers to common (and obscure) administration problems in the Windows family of operating systems. As a guide to real-world troubleshooting, this book will be a nearly indispensable resource for Windows administrators.

The most appealing feature of this book is that it contains material that the enterprise Windows administrator needs on a daily basis. Besides expert tips, the book refuses to ignore obvious questions about installing, configuring, and optimizing Windows NT/2000. In these pages, you will find dozens of tips on setting up Windows (including networking options), with full coverage of procedures for adding users, groups, and domains. Sections on service packs give invaluable advice on which ones are available and how to apply them correctly.

Besides the basics, the book also shows off today's back-end tools required for the corporate intranet (including material on Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol [DHCP], Domain Name System [DNS], and Remote Access Service [RAS]). The section on using and administering redundant array of independent disks (RAID) disk arrays is also a standout here, as are the numerous tips on customizing (and often disabling) Windows 2000 desktop features for complete control of the desktops on your enterprise.

Though this information is in a FAQ format, many questions get comprehensive treatment (and several pages of text) along with screenshots at certain points to help you through some of the more important administrative tasks. With its mix of breadth and depth for the real-world Windows administrator, The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book can prove to be a real time-saving resource for installing and troubleshooting Windows on the enterprise. --Richard Dragan

Review
âThis is a great book! It provides real-world knowledge that would otherwise take many years of experience to accumulate.ââTim Hill, Windows NT MVP and author of Windows NT Shell Scripting

âBuy this book before the Microsoft tech support people buy them all up!â

Robert Coleridge, Microsoft, MSDN Content Development Group
"Read this book and you probably will become the local 'Answer Man' with regards to Windows NT."

Mark Minasi, author of the best-selling Mastering Windows NT Server 4
"Buy this book before the Microsoft tech support people buy them all up!"

Book Description
"Buy this book before the Microsoft tech support people buy them all up!" -Mark Minasi, author of the best-selling Mastering Windows NT Server 4

Windows NT is rapidly becoming the enterprise server and desktop operating system of choice. The highly anticipated Windows 2000 upgrade will enhance the current feature set, but it will also increase the complexity of working with this important operating system. Using The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book, administrators, developers, and users will be able to quickly and effectively find answers, solve problems, and get the best performance possible from Windows NT. John Savill offers answers to more than eight hundred common Windows NT and Windows 2000 questions, all carefully organized in an accessible format for quick reference.

The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book is a significantly expanded and more detailed version of the author's highly regarded Windows NT FAQ (www.ntfaq.com), cited by Microsoft's On-Line Developer Network (MSDN) as the most comprehensive and current Web-based Windows NT resource of its kind. This book addresses a broad range of topics, from the simple to the complex: installation, system and desktop configuration, the Registry, recovery and backups, network issues, Internet topics, e-mail, file systems, administration, security, hardware, and much more. The use of concrete explanations and real-world examples helps get you to the heart of what you need to know in order to install the system properly, configure it to serve the organization's needs, and keep it running smoothly.

Readers will find solutions to such important questions as: What is new in Windows 2000? What is the Active Directory? Can I change a PDC/BDC into a stand-alone server? How do I create a DHCP Relay Agent? How can I create a RAS Connection Script? How do I connect my Exchange server to an SMTP server?

These are just a few examples of the wealth of information you will discover in this invaluable resource. Whether you are looking for a specific answer or just browsing to gain insight and practical techniques, no enterprise system administrator, developer, or user working with Windows NT can afford to be without this book. A comprehensive supporting Web site, including sample code, can be found on the Addison-Wesley web site.

Book Info
Offers answers to more than eight hundred common Windows NT and Windows 2000 questions, all carefully organized in an accessible format for quick reference. Softcover. DLC: Microsoft Windows NT.

From the Back Cover

"This is a great book! It provides real-world knowledge that would otherwise take many years of experience to accumulate." --Tim Hill, Windows NT MVP and author of Windows NT Shell Scripting

"Buy this book before the Microsoft tech support people buy them all up!" --Mark Minasi, author of the best-selling Mastering Windows NT Server 4

Windows NT is rapidly becoming the enterprise server and desktop operating system of choice. The highly anticipated Windows 2000 upgrade will enhance the current feature set, but it will also increase the complexity of working with this important operating system. Using The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book, administrators, developers, and users will be able to quickly and effectively find answers, solve problems, and get the best performance possible from Windows NT. John Savill offers answers to more than eight hundred common Windows NT and Windows 2000 questions, all carefully organized in an accessible format for quick reference.

The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book is a significantly expanded and more detailed version of the author's highly regarded Windows NT FAQ (www.ntfaq.com), cited by Microsoft's On-Line Developer Network (MSDN) as the most comprehensive and current Web-based Windows NT resource of its kind. This book addresses a broad range of topics, from the simple to the complex: installation, system and desktop configuration, the Registry, recovery and backups, network issues, Internet topics, e-mail, file systems, administration, security, hardware, and much more. The use of concrete explanations and real-world examples helps get you to the heart of what you need to know in order to install the system properly, configure it to serve the organization's needs, and keep it running smoothly.

Readers will find solutions to such important questions as:

What is new in Windows 2000?

What is the Active Directory?

Can I change a PDC/BDC into a stand-alone server?

How do I create a DHCP Relay Agent?

How can I create a RAS Connection Script?

How do I connect my Exchange server to an SMTP server?

These are just a few examples of the wealth of information you will discover in this invaluable resource. Whether you are looking for a specific answer or just browsing to gain insight and practical techniques, no enterprise system administrator, developer, or user working with Windows NT can afford to be without this book.

0201606364B04062001

About the Author

John Savill is an independent consultant to worldwide banking institutions and an MCSE who has been working with Windows NT since version 3.51. He authors the highly regarded Windows 2000/XP/.NET FAQ Web site, and has been awarded a Windows NT MVP from Microsoft for his superior product knowledge and practical skills. In addition, he serves as a contributing editor to various publications.

Windows NT was first inaugurated in 1993. Four versions later (3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0), we are now waiting for Windows 2000. Many sites, however, are just now upgrading to NT 4.0 and many expect to continue to use NT 4.0 for several years, making a comprehensive resource on NT 4.0 a vital and necessary item for the NT 4.0 user or system administrator. As Windows NT has stabilized and developed over time, it has become known for certain strengths--easy-to-use GUI, excellent security, and a very rich feature set--in spite of its comparatively weak reliability and hardware support, which is improving with Windows 2000.

Particularly as a result of NT's ease of use and large feature set (and not forgetting the Microsoft name), Windows NT is rapidly becoming the server operating system of choice and--in the corporate market--the desktop system of choice. In the future, all Microsoft operating systems will be NT based with the introduction of Windows 2000. With advanced technologies such as built-in application repair and full plug-and-play support, the use of NT will not be restricted to the workplace and the home office, but will be made easily accessible to general users as well. With NT here to stay, learning how to get the most out of it is critical. In the corporate setting in particular, Windows NT system administrators must deal with many common challenges and tasks, but until now, there has been no one resource that addresses all of these common tasks and challenges. The goal of this book is to provide Windows NT users and system administrators with valuable know-how for handling these day-to-day tasks and proven solutions to the many common challenges. Just as the administrator is task-driven, so too is this book task-focused. How do I terminate a trust relationship? How do share and file system permissions interact? Over 800 such frequently asked questions (FAQs) and their answers are provided in this book!

The tasks and challenges addressed as questions cover all facets of Windows NT, from the simple to the complex, and should appeal to both experienced and inexperienced administrators and users. When first using NT, everyone has the same challenges (or issues, to use Microsoft-speak), such as

How do I install NT on a machine with Windows 98 installed?

How do I convert a FAT partition to NTFS?

How can I change the My Computer icon?

Every answer is structured in a step-by-step format, with examples and an explanation of exactly what is being carried out.

If answers to some questions are well known to you, you can skip over these sections. This book is designed to appeal to readers with different levels of experience with NT. My hope is that, with over 800 questions, all readers will find something helpful and informative.

How It Began

I've been using Windows NT since its first version, 3.1; however, my first use was accidental. I only noticed I was using NT when the machine hung--I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del and, instead of rebooting, a strange dialog appeared. From that point forward I was hooked and have been ever since, learning all I can about the Windows NT operating system (OS) and even participating on the Windows 2000 beta team.

In developing my understanding of Windows NT, I've always been very active in the Windows newsgroups. About three years ago I started to notice that the same questions were being asked by both system administrators and average users within these different newsgroups. Because I often knew the answers to these questions, I put together a short list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and posted this list on my Logica Web page (where I worked at the time). I quickly began to get requests and suggestions from many other NT users, and over the past two years I've expanded the FAQs and added details about various back-office components, such as Internet Information Server, Proxy Server, and Exchange Server--all topics covered in this book. The Web version of the FAQ (http://www.ntfaq.com) now gets thousands of hits a month and is used by many large companies as a vital technical resource, including U.S. government agencies and many large computer and financial institutions. It is due in part to the creation and up-to-date maintenance of this Web-based FAQ that I was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award (MVP) in 1997 and 1998.

Turning the Web-based FAQ into a book seemed to be a natural and worthwhile progression. I didn't want this to be just a print version of the online FAQ, however, so I've expanded the text to be more comprehensive, provided many additional explanatory examples, and added as much information on Windows 2000 as is practical at this time. This book has over 800 answers to common NT questions asked by real people attempting to solve real problems, and I hope it will prove invaluable for users and system administrators alike.

Who Should Read This Book?

Anybody who has an interest in learning more about Windows NT will benefit from reading this book. Indeed, I've written the book to be usable by both NT novices and experienced NT administrators.

I, of course, hope everyone will read the whole of this book from start to finish. More likely, you will want to pick out those chapters of the book that will help you in your daily NT tasks. I also encourage you to read chapters that cover aspects of Windows NT that lie outside of your daily tasks. You will be surprised at the power of NT and will doubtless find new ways of accomplishing your day-to-day tasks. My hope is that this book can serve as the one Windows NT reference guide that will help you be successful as a user and system administrator.

Book Organization

So you can get to solutions quickly, I've structured the book so each entry is self-contained and does not require you to read previous entries. The book starts off covering the basic installation and NT fundamentals and then goes into more specific tasks, such as configuring the Active Directory or setting up a remote access service (RAS).

Sections generally start with what the chapter is about, how the item is installed and configured (where appropriate), and further customizations and common actions.

What Version of Windows NT Is Covered in This Book?

Both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 are covered in this book. Although the operating system has been modified substantially from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000, much of the user interface and other elements remain basically the same. This means some FAQs apply to both NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, but some only to NT 4.0 or only to Windows 2000. To help you navigate the book, we have used icons to indicate what version is covered by each FAQ. If no icon is present, the FAQ applies to both NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.

A Big Thanks to . . .

There are many people I would like to thank. First, I'd like to thank Stuart Chapman and Andy Rose from Logica. They gave me my first big break by hiring me at Logica and allowed me to learn and experiment with all things digital. Without their help, I doubt I'd be where I am today.

I would also like to thank the technical reviewers of this book: Jeff Dunkelberger, Erik Olson, Paul Nelis, Michael Chacon, Robert Coleridge, Dharma Shukla, and Krishnan Menon. A big thanks to Rebecca Bence for organizing the technical reviews and to Gary Clarke of Addison Wesley for keeping the whole thing together. Their patience and professionalism helped transform my rough draft manuscript into this coherent, perfect work of art.

Many people have helped and encouraged me through life. I would especially like to thank my fiancee, Emmaline (we are to be married August 14, 1999), for putting up with my 'always being on that computer' and for her love and support.

Also a big thanks to my parents, who first introduced me to the computer bug with a ZX Spectrum, who always encouraged me to try everything, and who taught me that anything is possible.

Let us begin!

John Savill London, England February 1999

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